Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (47 page)

             
"Of course," she replied as she hugged her. "And we only need to talk about it more if you want to. I said what I needed to."

             
"Thanks, Suzy. Reece mentioned how you always look out for him." With that, she walked the last corridor to her quarters and as she entered, she readied herself for some sleep.

______

              The city on Donara was breathtaking. King Dominus had really gone above and beyond even the most wild of Jesse's expectations. All of the people that made the trip from the Milky Way were buzzing with excitement. The best view was as you were approaching by shuttle. The city center consisted of forty buildings, a central tower surrounded by three rings. The brilliant, white tower in the middle was the tallest at one hundred eighty-six stories. It was surrounded by five gleaming gold one hundred twenty-two story buildings. The next ring consisted of twelve shimmering silver buildings at ninety-four stories apiece and the last ring was made up of twenty-two, muted platinum seventy story buildings. There was a wide road that led from the edge of the city center all the way to the central tower. The city center would be the base of all government operations as well as the business district. In essence, this was likely to be the area people were commuting to each morning.

             
Surrounding the circular city center were five sections of housing. The sections also continued the circular theme as they started out smaller near the city center and grew proportionately wider the further you traveled. Each section was broken into three sub-sections, or another three rings. The first sub-section was made up of high-rise luxury apartments; forty-six story apartment buildings with a clean grey brick facing. The second sub-section consisted of eighteen story family apartments. Each unit was two stories and boasted between three and five bedrooms. These buildings were faced with white stone. The final sub-section consisted of two and three story houses; some were mansions from the look of it. Throughout each section, sprawling manicured parks were present. Each of the houses had perfectly manicured lawns and gardens.

             
Finally, the last ring of the city consisted of the spaceport, two shopping districts and two entertainment districts. There was plenty of room past these districts to add more housing as the city grew. Five hover train lines led into the city center and four more ran circular lines at the beginning of each sub-section and the beginning of the districts. The whole thing was beautiful and incredibly well thought out. It would be so easy to turn this into a city for a million before beginning construction on another city if the population continued to grow. The King had even built a resort town by the ocean. Jesse estimated it could accommodate up to twenty-five thousand vacationers at a time. The whole thing was wondrous.

             
Almost three weeks later, the city was finally settled. All of the Cargo Haulers had been emptied and the space liners had been put in giant hangers with the cargo ships that were built by the SSE construction equipment they had with them. There was so much room to the west of the spaceport that they could almost build another city there. Instead, Jesse chose to build hangars and depots for their non-military fleet resources. He made sure to keep the dimensions and placement in line with the circular theme the city had going; it was too beautiful to mess with. He also set his construction equipment about the task of building the new
Leviathan
and
War Hawk
shipyards even further west than the depots. King Dominus’ construction crews and equipment were hard at work adding on to the beautiful city.

             
All of the one hundred eighty-three thousand people that had come from the Milky Way were in sparkling new homes and happily getting settled. They were joined by one hundred thirty-six thousand Hyperian citizens for a total of three hundred nineteen thousand people. Their city was already over sixty percent full. Thankfully, almost everyone was happy with their new living arrangements and it wouldn't be long before the business district at the city center was thriving with activity. They would also need to begin filling the schools and using the stores and restaurants. Some off-planet entrepreneurs had already opened up some stores and restaurants, but Jesse and Nina wanted the bulk of the stores and restaurants to come from within the population of the city.

             
Jesse called together all of his leaders, ten counting himself. He called Nina, Serge, Josiah, Suzy, Manny, General Kelly, Admiral Sonnadall, Colonel Jameson and a well respected Hyperian politician Jonu.  Jonu came with King Dominus’ personal assurances that he was in fact a charismatic and effective leader. Now that everyone was settled in their homes, they needed to get a government together quickly.

             
"I think we need to set up an election as quickly as possible," Jesse began. "Our people need the stability of knowing they have a leader."

             
"No, absolutely not. We don't need an election," Nina replied.

             
"Of course we need an election. We can't just declare a leader." Jesse argued.

             
"I'm with Nina,” Josiah added. “We already have a leader.” One after another, they began to say the same thing. It was clear that they all thought Jesse should be leading them.

             
"Thank you for your faith in me, but we need to be above reproach. I cannot just declare myself leader. How would I be any different from Lucien or Tovanoras? If I can just declare it and make it happen, where's my accountability? What makes anyone here think I even want this power?"

             
"I understand where you are coming from, Jesse, but even asking those questions makes you different from Lucien and Tovanoras. We know you don't want it or need it, which is what makes you perfect for it." Suzy encouraged. “We will be here to help you and hold you accountable. Not that we'll need to. Jess, these people followed you out here, they didn't follow any of us. Not to mention that because of your reputation on Hyperia, you are probably the one person that can effectively lead both our people and the Hyperians."

             
"She is right, my friend, King Dominus has instructed both myself and Jonu that we are to place ourselves under your authority. How would we do that if you were not our leader?" Admiral Sonnadall asked as Jonu nodded.

             
After a few moments of silence, Serge spoke up. "For those of us from the Coalition, it has been a long while since we have had leadership we could trust. That is what each of the people in this city sees when they look at you. I am sorry, but you have to do this. I know that you do not wish to, but there is no other choice."

             
"If you want, we could send a transmission to the fleet asking them who they would like to be our leader. If it doesn't come back at least ninety percent in favor of you, we'll do it your way." General Kelly suggested.

             
"That won't be necessary," Nina replied. "Jesse knows what he has to do."

             
"Fine," Jesse answered. "But there are gonna be some conditions. First, we have a legitimate election as soon as everything is up and running, no longer than a year from now. Second, if you think I'm wrong about something, let me know. If I disagree, I can still be overruled if six of you vote against my bad idea. Simple majority, six to four. If more of you think I am doing the wrong thing than think I'm doing the right thing, then I need to rethink what I'm doing. Third, I'm gonna need time with Kimi, Lana and Sun. I cannot disappear down the black hole of bureaucracy and leave them alone for days on end. Lastly, I don't want a title that sounds too leader-ish, like Chief of State, or President."

             
"How about Supreme Commander," Manny joked.

             
"How about Prime Minister?" Josiah suggested. "You like to help people, Jess, isn't that what ministers do?"

             
"I like it; I think it's more humble than the rest." Jesse agreed.

             
"It is settled, then," Admiral Sonnadall announced. "Jesse is the first ever Prime Minister of Donara. Now, we need to come up with a name for the city."

             
"That's on you guys, I don't want to be naming things." Jesse said as he shook his head.

             
“How about New Polisia, in honor of the one planet that didn't betray us? Nina asked.

             
Jesse knew that Nina suggested this because she missed home, and his first inclination was to say yes outright because he loved his sister, but instead he said, "I like it, let's take a vote on it. All those in favor of New Polisia, raise your right hand." Every hand went up except Jonu's.

             
"Jonu, do you have something you would like to call our city?" Sonnadall asked.

             
"No, I just didn't think it appropriate for me to vote since I am the only one that has never been to Polisia. I hope you do not mind."

             
"No, Jonu, that's alright." Jesse assured him. "In my first official act as Prime Minister, I hereby approve the vote of nine to zero with one abstention that gives our city the name New Polisia." He smiled and he could see the deep look of appreciation in Nina and Serge's eyes. “Well, I'm sure we all have things to do. Let's meet back here tomorrow morning and discuss my cabinet. I have some ideas, but I want to sleep on them. I also want to see my family and begin working on my new leg." They all chuckled as they left. One thing was for sure, with Jesse in charge, there would never be pointless or unnecessarily long meetings. The city was about to officially find out that Jesse was their leader and the city had a name. It would be a good day in New Polisia.

______

              Tovanoras sauntered through the streets of Gallazor on Pandara Minor. Pandara Minor was the smaller of the dual Pandaran home worlds, but it was also the more populous of the two. It was not a planet that was overrun with deadly jungles; it was a planet of cities and suburbs. It contained mountains, forests, oceans, valleys, desserts and jungles along with three distinct seasons. Tovanoras had chosen Gallazor as his new base of operations because its factories were best suited to being converted into ship repair facilities. Repairs on his damaged ships were proceeding slowly, but he needed every last one of them to be at full strength if he was going to ever be able to unite the Lawless Sector under one, human-free government. Since his arrival in the Pandaran system, his fleet had been joined by eleven ships that had escaped the massacre that had followed his defeat near Alliance territory. The alien races he had hoped to unite into a powerful confederacy to dominate the human population of the sector had nothing left to give. Not only that, but if he were to show up with his fleet unannounced at any of those planets, it would not be too long before a large fleet showed up to destroy them. Pandara had also been able to help him with seven more ships they had liberated from the Conglomerate in the confusion of the aftermath of their defeat at the hands of Hyperia. As soon as all of his ships were once again space worthy, he would have a fleet of one hundred five ships.

             
"Tovanoras," Yartan called over his comms. "A large Conglomerate fleet has taken up position in a nearby system."

             
"How large?" Tovanoras was in no mood to have to deal with the new, Hyperian-appointed government of the Conglomerate.

             
"One hundred forty ships, and they have already sent us a strong warning not to enter Conglomerate space. I imagine that after their relatively easy defeat at King Dominus hands, they wish to flex their muscles wherever possible and they naturally look upon us with mistrust."

             
"Naturally," he dryly responded. "No matter, I have no plans to enter Conglomerate space. We will finish our fleet repairs here and then make our way back out to the galactic edges. It will take some time, but we will rebuild our forces, and when we do, whatever planet Jesse Marcos inhabits will be the first place we strike." He ended the transmission and continued down the narrow street to check on the progress of one of his destroyers. It was going slow and he felt a personal visit sometimes motivated his men to work faster. As he continued on his way, he wondered why he was going to all of this trouble. He did not wish to rule; that was his brother's ambition. He did desire to lead a powerful fleet into glorious battle, and he knew he was a far superior tactician to the humans of this sector. If the legendary Jesse Marcos had not shown up, he was certain he would already have the humans of the Alliance on their knees. Still, why did he care? He had no desire to rule, but he also had no wish to be subjugated. Having his brother rule the sector would have been the perfect solution to his dilemma. Unfortunately, his brother had been killed by his own foolish pride. Instead of waiting for the forces he was bringing to the battle, he attacked prematurely, hoping to catch the humans off guard during the spectacle of the death match. Neither part of that plan worked out well.

             
Tovanoras finished his sad musings of his dead brother's flaws as he entered the facility. His people were all hard at work, which meant he couldn't even light into them for not putting forth an effort. He decided to try a different approach. "I am very impressed with your dedication," he loudly began. Slowly, all of the work stopped so they could listen to their leader. "I know you are all giving your best effort to get our fleet battle ready once again. We have suffered a minor setback, but make no mistake, the goal we all share will be accomplished. It might take a little longer, but we will eventually rule over hundreds of worlds with billions of humans bowed at our feet. I will leave you to your work, it is my hope that you will always be working this diligently towards our goals, and I would hate to be disappointed." He poured just the right amount of menace into his voice for that last line; after all, he wouldn't be the feared Tovanoras if there was not at least an implied threat to keep his people motivated.